As always, these lists are only based on things I bought this year, and where specified, that includes things that weren't published in 2022, but that's when I bought them. Which is most of what I buy in tpbs or manga, anyway.
Favorite Ongoing Series (min. 6 issues):
1. Moon Knight
2. West of Sundown
3. Slumber
There weren't exactly a lot of options, the only other one being She-Hulk, which I dropped. I repeatedly questioned whether I was going to keep buying West of Sundown, which is why it comes in 2nd, even if Moon Knight can feel like a very slight read in individual issues. I'm not sure if the six issues of Slumber are all there's going to be (in which case it's a mini-series), or if it'll continue later (ongoing series, obviously). Since issue 6 ended with several unresolved threads, I opted to put it here.
Favorite Mini-Series (at least 50% shipped in 2022):
1. Grrl Scouts: Stone Ghost
2. The Rush
3. Blink
This was a tough category, with a lot of options, even with me questioning whether certain books qualify, like Slumber or She Bites. I mean, a mini-series about Sgt. Rock killing Nazi zombies couldn't crack the Top 3! As much as I liked Kaiju Score: Steal from Gods, it didn't have a chance. Ditto The Thing. Step By Bloody Step was one that did get serious consideration, mostly because it's such a good-looking book.
It had to be these 3, though. Christopher Sebela created such an unnerving setting, which Hayden Sherman and Nick Filardi drew so well, making it even more disorienting. The creatures and the peculiar mythology in The Rush were both so memorable. And nothing else I bought looked remotely like Grrl Scouts. Mahfood just drew all sorts of strange stuff, but held it together with a solid story. I was looking forward to the next issue of that book as soon as the last one ended.
Favorite One-Shot:
1. Mary Jane and the Black Cat
2. Impossible Jones - Naughty or Nice
3. Moon Knight Annual
The only other option would have been that Street Fighter comic, and I just didn't like it enough. As for the finalists, as enjoyable as Moon Knight fighting justifiably aggrieved werewolves is, it can't beat out sneaky lady thieves reluctantly doing good things. The Hood ending up devoured because he once again is not nearly as smart as he thinks, is both a perfect end for a character that got too much of a push, and gives Mary Jane and Black Cat the edge.
Favorite Trade Paperback/Graphic Novel (anything I bought in 2022):
1. Mister Invincible - Local Hero, by Pascal Jousselin
2. Carbon & Silicon by Mathieu Bablet
3. Thor and the Warriors Four, by Alex Zalben and Gurihiru
It was the kind of year where there were a lot of things I liked (and plenty I didn't), but few I was wildly enthusiastic about. This feels like a bit of a weird trio. Mister Invincible's a mostly lighthearted book exploring what an artist can do with a comic page. A lot of one page gags. Thor and the Warriors Four is the last of the all-ages Power Pack mini-series Marvel did in the 2000s, which seems like it should be lighthearted, considering the Powers team-up briefly with the Pet Avengers and Thor is turned into a baby. But it's also a story where Loki uses Julie Power's desperation to save their dying grandmother to seize control of Asgard. Both books are drawn in a simplified, open and expressive style, with bright colors.
Then you've got Carbon and Silicon, about a pair of artificial humans trying to survive as the world around them burns down multiple times across the centuries. The people in it are lumpy, awkward, sickly, often dying without pride or dignity as their bodies fail and society crumbles.
In summary, Calvin's brain is a land of contrasts.
Favorite Manga (anything purchased in 2022):
1. Ryuko vol. 2, by Eldo Yoshimizu
2. Steel Fist Riku vol. 2, by Jyutaroh Nishino
3. Akira Toriyama's Manga Theater, by Akira Toriyama (duh)
Cross Game volume 8 probably deserved more consideration than I gave it, but I kind of forgot it since it's sitting on the table waiting to be the next manga/tpb review, rather than in the box with all the others I bought in 2022. But I'll stick with this grouping. The Toriyama book is a collection of a lot of earlier work that didn't last terribly long for one reason or another (often because the readers hated it). It's interesting to see him growing as an artist, and the stories often focus more on comedy, which Toriyama's good at. It's just he's also real good at drawing fights.
The first volume of Steel Fist Riku found a good balance between quick stories designed to highlight both comedy and action, and longer threads that revealed more about the main characters. The second volume of Ryuko just got completely bonkers, between the shootouts in the upper levels of skyscrapers over who would control an ancient army, the freakin' CIA getting involved, people getting a motorcycle wheel in the face. All of it with Yoshimizu playing up contrast on these pages seemingly dripping with ink. Like with Grrl Scouts, nothing I bought looked like Ryuko, either.
Favorite Writer:
1. Mathieu Bablet
2. Si Spurrier
3. Jed MacKay
I bought enough stuff MacKay wrote, it seemed like he needed to be on here somewhere, but Spurrier had both The Rush and Step By Bloody Step to his credit, so that got him the #2 spot. As for Bablet, well, his art style is not one I would normally describe as my preference, but I love Carbon and Silicon, so his writing must have really done the trick for me.
Favorite Artist (min. 110 pages drawn this year):
1. Jim Mahfood
2. Matias Bergara
3. Hayden Sherman
Maybe it's not fair to restrict this to this year when I didn't do the same for the writers, but it felt like it would be more pronounced for certain artists to be judged on manga or back issues I bought they did that might span years of their careers, versus other people being judged entirely on one mini-series from this year. *shrugs* My blog, my arbitrary rules.
Anyway, Sherman came in behind Bergara because some of his pages were from Above Snakes, which didn't require him to be quite as creative with layouts, and so don't show off his skills nearly as much. Mahfood came in first because while most of his work is an extremely simplified style, it doesn't cost him on expression, and he can get detailed when he needs to.
And with that, we're done with 2022. Tomorrow, we're looking at some books from 2023, but now, I need to start organizing all this stuff into my larger collection.
No comments:
Post a Comment